WEDNESDAY, Nov. 12 (HealthDay News) -- At high temperatures, the contact lens solution ReNu with MoistureLoc loses significantly more fungistatic activity than other products, suggesting that improper temperature control of ReNu with MoistureLoc may have contributed to the 2004-2006 Fusarium keratitis epidemic, according to a study published in the November issue of the Archives of Ophthalmology.
John D. Bullock, M.D., of the Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine in Dayton, Ohio, and colleagues stored separate bottles of six contact lens solutions -- ReNu with MoistureLoc, ReNu MultiPlus, COMPLETE Moistureplus, AQuify, Clear Care, and OPTI-FREE RepleniSH -- at room temperature and 60 degrees Celsius (140 degrees Fahrenheit). After four weeks, they tested the solutions' ability to inhibit growth of 11 Fusarium isolates, including seven associated with the keratitis epidemic.
The researchers found that ReNu with MoistureLoc showed the greatest decline in fungistatic activity while Clear Care and ReNu MultiPlus showed the least decline. They also found that ReNu with MoistureLoc stored at room temperature allowed growth of 27 of the 84 combinations of keratitis epidemic isolates and that ReNu with MoistureLoc stored at 60 degrees C allowed growth of 67 combinations.
"These factors, together with the FDA findings of temperature control issues in and beyond the Greenville plant, may have potentiated a set of circumstances that led to the epidemic of ReNu with MoistureLoc-related Fusarium keratitis," the authors conclude. "Knowledge of the potential loss of antimicrobial activity of contact lens solutions and other pharmaceutical products when exposed to higher temperatures and the risk of such exposure when storing and transporting those products may help prevent such epidemics in the future."
Bullock disclosed that he has served as a consultant for three different law firms concerning the Fusarium keratitis epidemic.
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